Dr James Mwangi today at Equity Centre announced two key appointments in the Equity Bank Group’s senior management. The Bank Group has created the position of a Chief Operating Officer (COO) and appointed Julius Kipng’etich to this position. Kipng’etich joins the Bank Group from Kenya Wildlife Service where he served as the director for eight years. During his tenure, he transformed the parastatal into a serious business outfit.

At the same time, Dr Mwangi also announced the appointment of Samson Oduor as the Group Finance Director. Samson joins the Bank Group from EcoBank Transnational Inc. where he served as the CFO – Domestic Bank Africa and was based in Lagos and Lome between 2011 until he took up his new assignment at Equity Bank Group.

Speaking when announcing the appointments, Dr Mwangi said, “As the Bank continues to grow in size and footprint, we will continuously seek outstanding talent that will contribute in implementing the Bank’s panafrican expansion strategy.  The Bank has a talented and youthful management team across the group that is passionate, enthusiastic, resilient and committed to the Equity dream. Driven by the desire to transform the lives and livelihoods of our people, the Equity Bank team has proven that with the power of focus and determination, an organization can rise from a small enterprise to a globally competitive corporation. Julius and Sam have specialist skills, a wealth of experience and an exemplary performance track record that will complement our management team in our journey of championing the social economic prosperity of the people of Africa.”

Commenting about his appointment, Julius said, "After being on the board for eight years and chairing the Board Strategy and Risk Committees I feel it is time to join the management team and further strengthen it in the areas of efficiency and competitiveness; reengineering of business processes and talent management as part of preparing Equity for the next growth phase of expanding to the rest of Africa whose prospects are very promising"

Samson also commented that “Equity revolutionized banking in Kenya over the last 10 years, I look to being part of the team which in the next 10 years will be looked at as having revolutionized banking in Africa.” 

Equity Bank Group CEO Dr. James Mwangi poses for a photo with newly appointed Equity Bank COO Julius Kipng’etich (left) and Group Finance Director Samson Oduor after the official announcement.

JULIUS KANGOGO KIPNG’ETICH
Chief Operating Officer, Equity Bank Group

Julius Kangogo Kipng’etich, who has been a long serving member of the Equity Bank Kenya Board of directors, has joined the Bank as the Chief Operating Officer for Equity Bank Group. He will sit at Equity Centre, the headquarters for the Bank Group.

Julius joins the Bank after an eight year successful career at the helm of Kenya Wildlife Service. He joined KWS as the Director in December 2004. Before this, he was the Managing Director of The Investment Promotion Council. 

Kip, as he prefers to be called, is an ardent believer in continuous improvement.  His tenure at KWS saw him transform the Government Parastatal into a serious business outfit. In a bid to ensure World Class Parks, Kip greatly improved the Management of the Parks, while giving Conservation a strong scientific approach.  These measures resulted to safer and more pleasurable experiences within the Wildlife Protected Areas and lead KWS to Leadership.

A Starehe Boys’ Alumnus, Kip has over 17 years experience in Business Process Re-engineering and Change Management. He was Director of the Student Welfare Authority, University of Nairobi, where he also lectured in the Department of Management Science.

He is a member of the Kenya Tourist Board, and serves on the Boards of Kenya Forest Service, Police Oversight Board, Moi Girls’ Eldoret, Starehe Girls’ School, Starehe Boys’ Centre, Kenya Tea Development Authority and the Kenya Red Cross Society. He is a leading member of the Mau Task Force, The Steering Committee for the Marketing of Kenya Stadia, The Ist University Council Member-Management University of Africa. He is also the Patron of AISEC – University of Nairobi.

Kip is a Winner of the Chief Executive Officer of the Year Award, COYA 2009 and has Two Awards from the Head of State namely: EBS and CBS. Under his tenure, KWS won coveted prizes in areas of Leadership, Management and Corporate Governance.  Through his leadership KWS became a Superbrand, and also received the 2011 Recognition as Warrior of the Marketing Society of Kenya- Superlative Trailblazer Award Star
His Hobbies and Interests include Philanthropy, systems theory, mountain climbing (climbed to Point Lenana, Mount Kenya), traveling, reading, golf and classical music.

SAMSON MESHACK ODUOR
Group Finance Director

Sam holds a Bcom degree (Finance and Accounting) from the University of Nairobi and is a Certified Public Accountant. He is also writing his dissertation for an MBA at the University of Wales in the UK. He brings to Equity Bank Group a wealth of experience in the finance and banking career spanning over 23 years.

He started his career at Price-Waterhouse where he worked for seven years both in Kenya and in the United Kingdom. He rose from the position of an Audit Senior through to Assistant Manager and later Audit Manager.

He then joined the financial sector where he worked for Credit Agricole Bank for three years as Head of Operations, before moving to ABN AMRO NV Kenya as the Head of Operations & Global Transaction Services. Sam later served Diageo Group for just under six years serving as Finance Director Kenya Breweries, Finance Director Guinness Nigeria Breweries, Finance Director E.A.B.L. and Finance Director Projects for Diageo Africa. The roles were based in Kenya, Nigeria and UK.

He later served at the Standard Chartered Bank as the Regional Head of Audit for Africa for four years before moving to EcoBank Transnational Inc. as CFO – Domestic Bank Africa and was based in Lagos and Lome between 2011 until he took up his new assignment at Equity Bank Group.

Sam’s wealth of experience in finance is both expansive and diverse and includes audit, operations, project management, negotiations, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and implementation of shared services for multinational operations. Sam developed what is now the Local Foreign Currency Clearing initially for 7 local banks before it was adopted by KBA. Sam was also a member of the MICR Guidance and Implementation Team that rolled out the electronic clearing and included cheque truncation as the last step of automation.

At Equity Bank Group, Sam will head the finance function as Group Finance Director.